Blomkamp brings ‘Chappie’ to Boksburg
Renowned South African movie director Neill Blomkamp recently came to the Bateman Building, on the corner of Thirteenth Avenue and North Road, to film a part of Chappie, which is set to be released in 2015, with South African international film star Shalto Copley.
The film also stars Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver and Dev Patel, to name a few of the top-notch actors who are starring in it.
After being kidnapped by two criminals at birth, Chappie becomes the adopted son in a strange and dysfunctional family.
Chappie is preternaturally gifted, one of a kind – a prodigy. He also happens to be a robot.
According to Sony, the two criminals are Ninja and Yolandi Visser, voices of the South African Zef counter-culture movement and members of rap-rave duo Die Antwoord.
Chappie is said to be based on one of Blomkamp’s earlier short films, Tetra Vaal.
Some of the scenes have been shot in central Johannesburg, Kempton Park and Hillbrow.
“It has been a great shoot with great locations,” unit publicist, Dawid Wilson, tells the Advertiser.
The Ponte City skyscraper, in Hillbrow, is only one of the iconic landmarks where filming took place.
The filming of Chappie has been taking place since October, 2013, and it is the second biggest film Blomkamp has made in South Africa — both are based in Johannesburg.
“Neill is good at focusing attention on Johannesburg; District 9 was largely filmed in Soweto, while Chappie’s main location is downtown Johannesburg. Johannesburg is one of Africa’s great cities,” adds Wilson.
According to him, Blomkamp brings big projects to Johannesburg and explains that this boosts the economy of the city.
“The Bateman Building in Boksburg has been empty for a long time, so the income is really great for the people,” says Wilson.
The Chappie crew consists of national and international members.
The cast consists of 50 main and 300 extra characters, who have been drawn from all over the world.
The majority of the main characters are all from South Africa, and all the extras are locals.
“It is an amazing growth for these actors to be in these films,” says line producer, Trishia Downie.
In an interview with online film website ScreenCrush, Copley said: “I think there’s not much I can say except that I’m excited about Chappie; I think it’s an extremely original combination of elements that is perhaps a little bit closer to the vein of District 9 in terms of, you know, things that are familiar to you, in some ways, in a very unfamiliar setting, situation.
“So, I’m very excited about it; I’m having a lot of fun playing this role – again, something very, very different for me.
“What we are doing is basically a motion capture – sort of like a poor man’s motion-capture version. “I play the character and the robot, and the animators use everything that I’m doing in the same way that motion capture would work.”
Copley has also starred in international films such as the A-Team, Elysium and District 9.
